Bari – posher nosh in mid-town Murat

Please see my previous post for buildings, bars and shops in Murat. This post is just about restaurants. Most of the more modern mid range to high end places seem to be in this neighbourhood. Here’s my Google map with everywhere on.

One of my favourite places in town, it’s also a Gambero Rosso selection and a Lonely Planet top pick. You can eat reasonably-priced well-cooked traditional fare, served by nice people in pleasant surroundings. What more could you ask for?

Everything I’ve eaten here is A/B and their own label house red is a good buy. They have some interesting local amari should you like this kind of digestivo.

On two different occasions I spent €35 and €45, which was good value for money.

Off the beaten path so a little hard to find. It looks like it’s shut but ring the bell and they’ll let you in. The interior is bright and modern but I preferred to sit in their pleasant yard with its honeysuckle covered walls. The helpful and friendly co-owners Antonio, the young chef, and Francesca, the manager, both speak English and are always chatting with their customers.

I had the €50 tasting menu which was good value given the quality of the food and that included a few glasses of wines from Salento. There was more than one amuse bouche as I remember but the star was a grissini wrapped with what I understand was cured pigs cheek. It was a flavour epiphany for me (A+).

Next I had Mazzancolle al Vapore e Acqua dei Tre Pomodori (steamed king prawn with three types of small tomato). This and other dishes were garnished with a wild herb called ‘limoncello’ (due to its lemony taste) which Antonio told me grows wild on the rooves of Trulli.

Francesca told me their seafood had come from Mola di Bari the local port where I was working the next day (please see separate post).

Soffice ai Frutti di Bosco con Salsa allo Yogurt (forest berries with a yogurt sauce), and a couple of little extras including glasses of Muscat di Trani and their own thick, treacly, homemade nocino (a local amaro made with walnuts).

So in short a modern, friendly place that serves good food at a good price.

This is generally considered to be the best place in town. It is good but a bit too high end for me. I’ve been twice and had two different experiences, once as a lone diner and once as part of a group.

When I went by myself in 2014 I received a warm welcome from the tactile owner but was underwhelmed by the slightly snooty service. Perhaps to be expected as I tend to show up in t-shirt, jeans and trainers.

In 2009 I’d had my first taste of burrata here which was a flavour epiphany at the time but I wasn’t that impressed by it this time (B), perhaps because it was a day old. The fresh ricotta it came with was amazing though (A).

The Bavette (‘little dribble’, thinner and wider than linguine) ai Frutti di Mare was good for the price (B+). Everything else was fine except the unsolicited house special, the Spaghetti Assassina I think, long pasta tossed in singed chilli oil, which was one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten in an Italian restaurant (D). And it’s their special! Maybe I just caught a bad one…

I did have one good new experience though. Their homemade ‘Mandarino’ made a nice change from limoncello, but you wouldn’t want to drink too much of it (B).

The bill came to €44 which isn’t too bad but I don’t think I’ll be back by myself.

In 2009 I wrote: Eleven of us went to this fantastic restaurant (appropriately named ‘The Two Gluttons’) after a training convention and had a huge multi-course banquet with drinks for only €40 a head.

Our starters included some sublime ricotta, burrata mozzarella (hard exterior and a soft interior filled with cream ) and panzerotti (deep fried air pockets of dough filled, in this case, with mozzarella) and a salad of boletus mushrooms with celery and parmesan (all A).

Also nice were the fried olives, polenta, two types of octopus, some other grilled mushrooms, omelette and deep fried polenta (B).

My main was a plate of grilled prawns and scampi (A), one neighbour loved her Orichiette with Cime di Rape (a member of the broccoli family) and another the Spaghetti Assassina (pasta coated in chilli and tomato and flash-fried).

The wines were a wonderful Negromaro red (Cantine due Palme)(A) and the white a Locorotondo DOC (Bianco Vendemmia ’08) (B+).

And then came dessert! Several plates piled high with canoli, baba, sfogliatelle, fruit tarts, almond macaroons, figs , pomegranate (A) as well as chocolate balls, roast chestnuts, a huge bowl of liquorice, a slab of chocolate and jugs of homemade limoncello (B).